TOP FIVE: Endearing Things Louis van Gaal has done at Manchester United So Far

August 9, 2014

I cannot tell a lie, folks. I’m a little bit in love.

Louis van Gaal, of course, looks all the more beautiful because of who he’s replacing. Even without the Moyes effect, however, Van Gaal’s entrance has been not so much a breath of fresh air as a high-powered air-conditioning unit on a hot day.

So what has been so great about him? Let’s take a look at my top five favourite things he’s done so far.

5. His unique use of language

This is the first time United have ever had a manager whose first language is not English. Van Gaal has an excellent grasp of the language, but there are some beautiful idiosyncrasies in his pattern of speech.

Firstly he always calls himself a “Trainer-coach”. He rarely says one or the other, and rarely says manager. Secondly, he always calls his squad or team his “selection”. Thirdly he called pre-season “preparation time”.

All three of them are telling, in some way, of his approach to the job. He IS a “trainer-coach,” a manager determined to get the best out of his players by improving their capabilities. Witness his management of the Dutch national team, or Ashley Young’s excellent pre-season. The squad IS the “selection”, those lucky enough to be chosen, those available to be chosen from. And pre-season is preparation time. It’s not “shake a bunch of corporate sponsors hands and fly round the world” time. Which leads nicely to point number 4.

4. He’s already picking his fights

In his very first press conference, Van Gaal was introduced by United’s press officer. With the slightly awkward invitation to “say a few words about how delighted he is to have joined the club” Van Gaal instead responded by talking about what an honour it was to meet Bobby Charlton. Or rather SIR Bobby Charlton, as he immediately corrected himself.

He also said the pre-season tour was too long and whilst he understood the corporate needs of the club he felt football had to come first. Speaking ill of Sir Alex is, of course, taboo, but Fergie never spoke out against the commercial demands of the club which made him a very wealthy man. Van Gaal immediately set out his stall immediately as a football man.

United desperately need a “football man” in charge, given the lack of footballing nous in the upper-echelons of the club’s management structure. Van Gaal can, and apparently will, seek to be that.

3. The Passing

Look. I like passing. Not, like, in a Pep Guardiola/Arsene Wenger “it’s the only way nothing else matters” sort of a way. Just in the sense that lovely passing is often a really effective way to get the round thing into the rectangle thing and then score. Football at its best has a beautiful simplicity. Passing was invented as a way to get the ball closer to the goal and when it’s done right it really works.

And within, quite literally, two weeks of starting in the job, Van Gaal had got United passing. The opposition was only LA Galaxy, of course, but not long after that, United repeated the feat against Real Madrid, not at their best, certainly, but still a fairly decent outfit.

There’s been all sorts of different kind of passes. One touch flicks, carefully weighted through balls, long raking diagonals, and pinpoint crosses, with more of a purpose than just sticking it in the mixer and hoping for the best.

United’s style of play in pre-season has been transformed, and if he keeps this up, I’ll love him forever.

2. “Our friend Reece James” – Van Gaal and Youth

Following Reece James’ brace against LA Galaxy, he started the Roma game. He was not able to start the game against Inter, and after the game, Van Gaal said Shaw had played well, but had been lucky because he, barring injury, he would have played “our friend Reece James”.

However long Reece James’ career is at United, whatever success he goes on to achieve here or elsewhere, I will always think of him as “our friend Reece James”. Again, it is a use of language which is revealing. Van Gaal is prepared to give young players a chance, and treat them as he would any other part of “the selection”. He will attempt to make them feel both special and included. He will create an “us” and make them feel part of it.

This is good news for our friend Reece James, and our other friends in the United youth set-up.

1. He keeps talking about “humanity”.

This is a pretty personal one, but may be my single favourite thing about Van Gaal. He is extremely articulate, even in his second, or third, or fourth language. And one of the things he articulates is that he recognises football is a game played by human beings, and that recognising that shared humanity is a key part of the way he gets the best out of his players.

“Every club where I have been, I have struggled for the first three months. After that, they know what I want: how I am as a human being and also a manager.”

“It’s very important that we have experienced players but not only in age, not only in football experience but also experience as a human being. Because my philosophy is not only in football but in total…”

“I am a democratic, empathetic human being.”

“I never go back. I’m always a human being who wants to see into the future.”

Football is a game played by people. Human relationships were the key to Fergie’s success. They appear to be the key to Van Gaal’s. As a human being, I find that completely delightful. Here’s to many years of success, or at least, a whole lot of fun.

He was an integral part of the changes that caused us to go wrong last year and should take a LARGER share of the blame than the players. It's not enough to just say that everyone at the club shares in the blame. You have to look first to Moyes/Woodward and then right behind them comes Phil Neville who KNEW Moyes and still chose to come here.

I also don't like to see him talking about how LVG has an easier job than Moyes. Moyes inherited the champions, while LVG inherited a club in some disarray.

I also don't like him saying that we are now the favorites, thereby setting up LVG for failure if he ends up 2nd, 3rd or 4th. I'd have taken any of those positions last year!

Until last year, he'd been away from the club for a while. I don't think he has the right to say "we" any more, particularly after his part in the fiasco.

He is United through and through and is more entitled to use the term "we" than most, He played nearly 400 times for United and just because he moved on does not mean he cant call United "We" How many times have you played for United? SAF sold Phil Neville because he loved him like a son and didnt want him sitting on the bench, he was quite happy to stay and do any job required because he loves United. If you think United going from 1st to 7th is purely down to the management and the players are not partly responsible then youre very deluded indeed, Moyes paid with his job which is always going to be the case, but with the exception of 1 or 2, the players let the manager down and thats a fact.

People always said it was easier to come in as the man following the man who replaced SAF, so that is nothing knew its pretty commen knowledge he is just sayin what most of us think anyway.

Now on topic, I like all LVG press conferences, you can tell hes got a short fuse with the press, Fergie esc lol, alson the style of football is pleasing on the eye which it wasnt at all last season. I am confident going in to the season, hopefully we will bring in ome silverware, we need 2 CBs though in my opinion and another midfielder. All in all its been a cracking pre season, hope the form continues into the season

As a person who wanted to see klopp take over more than anything, i have to say i'm extremely impressed by LVG especially his achievements in the world cup and the way he has got united playing. It's the kind of football even fergie was incapable of achieving. I wish him all the best and a long stay at the club.
On the qiestion o fans support, united's match going fans showed laat eason that they are cut from a different cloth and were absolutely outstanding and classy in their aupport of moues, whether this was due to fergie's request, we will know soon but i feel that they will give LVG even more support because there's no way he can be as ad as Moyes.
Fergie has been very quiet about the LVG appointment and . I wonder whats going on with him.

No doubt LVG has been very impressive so far, but if you think Fergie never achived better football than LVG has managed in 5 "friendlies" then youre deluded, what a ridiculous thing to say, Fergie incapable of achiving that kind of football, haha ok whatever floats youre boat, also SAF has got a book coming out, He will reveal all he thinks about LVGs appointment in their, no one will buy the book if he reveals details now, Hes already took LVG out for coffee, he dosent own the club so he does not have to make any statement.

I was amongst d people that wanted klopp to take over from saf cos he plays d same type of game. Attacking football with highest tempo and counter attacking at its best. Is not all about passing d ball around, so I don't like it when people say good football as if saf was not playing one either. Towards d end of saf era, our style of play depreciated which I don't know why saf switched off.
LVG has been very impressive, at least we will not go out there trying to win bt to WIN.
Get in javier martinez and schnederlin and we are favourite. Martinez will also be comfortable playing in a 3 man central midfield. So two positions solved by jst a player

Good points, and the performance deteriated in recent years, but I think that was down to the quality of players he had. I dont care what some on here think and what SAF said publicly their was no doubt their was a halt to the purse springs which stopped him getting the players he wanted. The best United side I ever seen was the 1994 double winners, its a travestry that the 3 foreigner rule was in place (Scotish, Irish and Welsh counted as foreign), their is no doubt in my mind had thay not had a major hindrence that side wins the treble, 5 years before its actually achieved, easily the best side in Europe at hat time, but only pickingh 3 of Schmical, Irwin, Keane, Hughes, Giggs, MaClair, Kanchelskis, impossible

@Tommy
I guess enough time has passed away and we can now start rewriting history and making up forklores of fergie. Not only was fergie a master man manager he was the greatest technical coach ever seen. Hmm, maybe it's a bit too soon buddy, i mean i actually remember the last 5 years. Let's give it another 2 years and maybe then you can start painting fergie as the greatest technical coach.

What's Phil trying to insunuate! He better keep his mouth shut. He and Lord Moyes inherited a team of champions and fucked them up big time, they broke down the team's winning mentality and made united play like headless chicken. The team spirit was broken, by he and Lord moyes and they even said we should emulate man shitty. Now LVG inherited a broken squad, and he's trying to fix us back, and a destructive imbecile comes along trying to set very high standards for LVG in his 1st season in EpL. He should shut the fuck up, cos it ain't easier than it was for he and lord moyes, they were just too clueless and useless as managers of the biggest team in the world. He should shut up about LVG, at least like Lord moyes have. He's just cartooning himself saying 'it's easier now'.

I was one of the few people who feel Moyes should be given time while he was the manager but I realized how clueless he was when we were about to play newcaste utd either h or a(I can't recollect) and he was quoted to have said "We will make it difficult for them to beat us"; that statement make me totally lack trust in him and I'm sure the players did as well.
On topic, it's a good article and I concur with the author. Thank God we no longer have a manager who will mention "try" at every press conference and interview but a manager who command respect.
GGMU

Only a fool will belive this, are this not thesame players or even less that defeat the likes of real madrid, inter, Roman and Liverpool in pre season. @Tommy even at ur age u stil support Moyes as a better manager than LVG!!! The Mind boggles.

Lol...even a blind man knows Lord moyes let the players down with his negative tactics. He's the worst coach ever to have graced this club. Terrible manager, he even told Rio to watch jagielka videos and learn to defend like him. Lol, such a mediocre manager.

To many people put words in youre mouth on these pges, how does Sir Liam Matt get that me saying the players let the Moyes down to Moyes is a better nmanager than LVG. 9 times out of 10 when a manager loses his job its because the players stopped playing for him hence letting him down, not rocket science lol

@Mark Ok, folklore is a bit of an exaggeration, but you can certainly appreciate the fact that LVG is a more technical manager than fergie. He may not end up as successful, but judging from his previous stints at bauern, barca and ajax, his teams tend to play with more technical and tactical awreness than Fergie's. I think even his record vs Fergie is good(not sure of the actual numbers). In 5 games we have seen where the team is heading, just like in 5 games, a few of us already knew it'd be a tough season and Moyes was probably not up to the job.

why the debate on Moyes still? everyone assoc w the club screwed up- players, moyes,Woodward, Glazers, SAF and Sir Bobby. Let's move on. LvG is trying to put United on track for long term success like he did in Barca and Bayern. SAF's last words at OT were support your manager- and now thats LvG. Good luck to Moyes in the future, but lets win some big games and maybe a trophy this year. This preseason bodes well for us in my opinion but we wont know til a few months down the line. Pool spanked Dortmund yesterday so our win in the US shows we are heading back where we need to be- GGMU

It is nothing new that fergie's strenghth was not the tactical side of the game but he was clever enough to accept this case and surround himself from innovative coaches.. In that case, fergie applied a superb management decision which bore plenty of fruit through out his career.

Wow, what a shame we all had to endure that tactical idiot Ferguson. Such a loser. And what a crap manager. Yeah he won a few things but only because of his assistants - obviously it wasn't down to his tactical nous and oh, how many assistants in his career was that? Perhaps the Fergie doubters and bashers can enlighten us? After all, the obvious contributing factor to winning trophy after trophy and constantly, constantly challenging for trophies and titles (God it got boring at times) was his assistants. Nothing to do with him at all. His assistants were all genius at Aberdeen too. Lets face, all Fergie did in his career was scream at his players and look at his watch. He hadn't a clue as to how to manage a team. Thank goodness his assistants never went on to become managers themselves. They would have shown him up for the fake he was. We would have still had 7 league titles. And don't mention any European coaches as they ALL are far more qualified than that idiot Fergie.

Transfers seem like a long way from happening now. Its hard to get big Transfers done as it is, but going all out and telling the world we will can break transfer records doesn't help. Apart from that i think we will get di maria on deadline day, real can't keep everyone happy. The centre of midfield is the real problem, that will depend on how much van gaal trusts cleverly and fletcher to cope With the absence of a powerhouse in midfield, I'll take de jong who would be an improvement over Anderson.
Still waiting for those sales to happen. There won't be a mass exodus, maybe Just a couple to be sold. Centre back is another worry, especially if the perennial centreback curse strikes again. Don't want to see fletcher playing there again.
Those of you calling sir Alex tactically deficient are akin to 10th graders saying Justin bieber is better than linkin park. Sir Alex got to three cl finals in 4 years, you don't do that without being tactically astute. Not to mention the dominance of the league in the last two decades.

Lets face it if SAF was Spanish, Portugese or Italian he would be idolised by you and others but because hes British, you cant except that a British man is THE GREATEST of all time, look at the facts, how much he has won even in his last few years when other managers had o much more money to spend, Mourinho, Pep, even our own LVG and Ancholotti walk into jobs and get a shedload of cash Sir Alex didnt need the money to be successful, he evenwon a European trophy at a small Scottish club where every member was born within 20 miles of the stadium, they didnt even have a training ground nd he never had an assistant yet beat the might Real madrid, he done all that without a tactical brain clearly ......

@Warrored

They pocketed £200million last week, not the clon. the Glazers.

@denislawking

When he won the cup winners cup with Aberdeen, he didnt even have an assistant or a training ground lol

@Tommy
Final 1, Good team with incredible never die attitude. Tactically exposed by bayern but the never die spirit impressed on the group made them fight ro the end and won it at the death.
Final 2, Better team and better players than chelsea but again the tactical setup was exposed and the group were outplayed from the second half. The woodwork came to the rescue several times and we won on pens again having the woodwork keep the ball away from uniteds goal.
Final 3- better team than barca at the time but this time the tactical exposure was too big to overcome because barca actually had very good players.
Final 4- Not as good a team but still better than most. Had an easy run to the final from the quarters but once we met a formidable side in barca we got our asses handed to us.
Look it's up to you how you wish to view things, Ergie wasn't technically and tactically naive but he didn't set the world alight either.

His record speaks for itself, louder and more proudly than any other. Nairobi red - are you a football fan - not just of United, but a person who actually loves the game. Or one of those heart bleeding fans of a team that, no matter what they do, will always find something to moan about. Come to think of it, are you male? You sound like my wife. Nothing I do is ever good enough.

Are you not going to look at the facts of that first final, its amazing we actually won at all, do you know why? We were missing "by far" the best 2 players at United, and perhaps the best 2 midfielders in the whole of Europe, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, see how Bayern would of done without Effenberg and Scholl, and guess what if Barca had been missing Meissi and Xavi for their 2 finals, United would of won both games, you dont half talk nonsence, Thge 2nd final United should of been 4 up at ht, they score a flukey equaliser and then their tails are up which is always the case, goals change games, and guess what we won both finals, the 2 goals against Bayern were secured by SAF "tactical" changes, but of course he had nothing to do with winning the European cup, the funny thing is you wouldnt even be a far without SAF lol.

I love how United supporters try to paint the best picture of the club even when they do foolish things.

The hiring of David Moyes was the most stupid decision that a top football club has ever made in my opinion. Allowing him to let go of top class coaching staff and to replace them with his lower level crew from Everton and include an ex-player in the coaching who wasnt good enough even as a player was even more foolish and baffling.
The notion that the players let down the manager is all bobbins! If am a good player who is a serial winner accustomed to top class coaching and astute team management, you cannot expect my full cooperation if you replace my management with a group that has obvious shortcomings in tactics, man management and experience. The Gulf in class was immediately obvious to the team and thus they couldnt perform let alone buy into the backward football Moyes wanted them to play. All this is the fault of the managerment.

For all those still defending David Moyes and his useless staff, u r deluded. The hiring of Van Gaal and everything that he has done so far is a great indicator of how terribly useless Moyes was for United. How he ever got that job i dont know. To me he is in the same class as the many other British managers like Sam Aladyce, Stuart Pierce, Roy Hogson etc etc. They are good but not yet good enough for a top team like United.

@Denislawking
Your wife is right. She could probably do better but thems the cards she was dealt.
@Tommy
Whose fault was it that we were missing these 2 players? Were the rules of the game changed to handicap united? Did Blatter issue a decree against our 2 midfielders? No. Scholes missed the final after picking up a second yellow. The rules are clear, so you cannot bend them to favour yourself and he was a grown man and knew he risked playing in the final but still put ina challenge strong enough it got him a yellow.
You cannot actually use illegal situations to argue a point. You cannot say arsenal were better than barca but lost due to a red card to the keeper, You put out your best 11 and hope that their positive qualities shine out on the day rather than their negative ones, however, it's on you if the latter happens. We can only look at the facts not hearsay or if's and maybe situations. Fact is, united had got to the final, had played the same amount of games as bayern, had taken risks to get there same as bayern and now both teams had to try and win while playing within the set rules.
Just to reiterate, I didnt call fergie a tactical novice, isaid he was a master tactician. Learn the difference.